Islamic Law

In a sign of latent fears of Islamic influence in Switzerland, voters on Sunday approved a constitutional ban on the construction of minarets on Muslim places of worship. There are only four minarets atop mosques in the small Alpine country, but the two right-wing parties that sponsored the referendum cast it as a political question about the assimilation of Muslims into Swiss life. The minaret "is a political symbol against integration; a symbol more of segregation, and first of all, a symbol to try to introduce Sharia law parallel to Swiss rights," Ulrich Schluer said in a telephone interview.

Lt. Col. Shareda Hosein, who lives dual lives in Army fatigues and an Islamic head covering, sometimes encounters what she calls "Islam anxiety" among her fellow soldiers, saying they pepper her with direct questions about jihad and Islamic law. Army Sgt. Ayman Kafel, who served as a military police officer in Iraq before retiring two years ago, had to overcome family objections to his service. Marine Sgt. Souhaib Elkoun, who also served in Iraq, was heckled as a traitor by fellow Arab Americans when he showed up in uniform at a community event.

The young couple are totally busted. They sit at a beach-side park, near signs forbidding teens from sitting too close. He has his arm around her shoulder. She isn't wearing her jilbab , the traditional Islamic head scarf. Just like that, the morality cops are in their face. "You two aren't married, right?" asks Syafruddin, the rail-thin leader of the six-man patrol, standing stiffly, one hand behind his back. "So you shouldn't sit next to one another." He separates the two and confiscates their IDs. Later, he says, the team will open an investigation of the couple, especially seeing as the young man lied, at first insisting the girl was his sister.

August 16, 2009 | Richard Boudreaux and Rushdi abu Alouf, Abu Alouf is a special correspondent.

An imam who wanted to impose Islamic law in the Gaza Strip was killed today in an explosion at one of his hideouts, ending a two-day battle between his armed followers and Hamas government forces that left 27 other people dead. The security crackdown could allow Hamas, which has tried to court favor with the West, to position itself as a moderate Islamic bulwark against militant forces inspired by Al Qaeda. But the challenge by the imam, Abdel-Latif Moussa, also pointed to splits among Hamas' followers.

Gaza's top judge said he had ordered female lawyers to wear head scarves when they appear in court, the latest sign that the Islamic militant group Hamas is increasingly imposing its strict interpretation of Islamic law on residents of the coastal strip. Supreme Court Chief Justice Abdul-Raouf Halabi said female lawyers would be required to wear head scarves and long, dark cloaks under their billowing black robes when the court returns from its summer recess in September. Halabi said his order was designed to ensure that women dress in accordance with Islamic law, which requires that women cover up in public, wearing loose garments and showing only their hands and faces.

A day after he was set free, a radical Pakistani cleric returned Friday to Islamabad's Red Mosque, the site of a deadly confrontation with government forces in 2007, and promptly issued an incendiary call for the spread of Islamic law across the troubled nation.